The present invention relates generally to postage printing systems. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a postage printing system including subsidies for printing of third party coupons.
Postage printing systems are well known in the art. A typical postage meter (one example of a postage printing system) applies evidence of postage, commonly referred to as a postal indicium, to an envelope or other mailpiece and accounts for the value of the postage dispensed. As is well known, postage meters include an ascending register, that stores a running total of all postage dispensed by the meter, and a descending register, that holds the remaining amount of postage credited to the meter and that is reduced by the amount of postage dispensed during a transaction. The postage meter generally also includes a control sum register that provides a check upon the descending and ascending registers. The control sum register has a running account of the total funds being added into the meter. The control sum register must always correspond with the summed readings of the ascending and descending registers. The control sum register is the total amount of postage ever put into the machine and it is alterable only when adding funds to the meter. In this manner, by inspecting the various registers and securing them from tampering, the dispensing of postal funds may be accurately recorded, tracked and accounted for.
More recently, a postage printing system has been developed where the accounting structure described above is no longer resident with the user. Sometimes referred to as a xe2x80x9cvirtual postage meterxe2x80x9d, these types of postage printing systems dispense postage electronically over suitable communication channels (LAN, WAN, telephone lines, Internet, etc.). The user maintains an account with a remotely located data center (maintained by an authorized postage meter manufacturer) and receives postage securely using appropriate electronic data interchange techniques. At a later time, the user is invoiced for the amount of postage dispensed and any other fees associated with maintaining the account with the data center. Oftentimes, a secret code or token is derived from information particular to the mailpiece (the indicated postage amount, date, recipient address information, etc.) and is incorporated or embedded into the postal indicium for later use by a postal authority in verifying the integrity of the postal indicium. Examples of such systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,725,718 and 5,454,038.
It is also known to print selected coupons (sometimes referred to as ad slogans although such coupons are not restricted to advertisements) along with the postal indicium. Generally, the coupon bears no relation to the postal indicium. In traditional postage meters employing either rotary drum or flat bed printing technology, the coupon was printed along with the postal indicium by including an additional printing die representative of the coupon. These dies were typically costly to manufacture and distribute and cumbersome for the postage meter user to install. Examples of die based systems for printing coupons are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,168,804 and 5,024,153. More recently, the postage meter industry has begun to incorporate digital (dot matrix) printing technology which obviates the need for dies as the digital printer may be supplied with suitable drive signals to effect printing of the coupon. Examples of digital printing technology based systems for printing coupons are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,831,554 and 5,509,109.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,554 teaches a system that allows the postage meter manufacturer to broker the use of advertising space by third parties on the envelopes. In concept, a third party advertiser may wish to take advantage of the space on the outgoing envelopes from a particular postage meter user to advertise its own products and/or services. In this system, a coupon the content of which originates from a third party is stored electronically within the postage meter. The postage meter keeps a count of the number of times that the coupon is printed in conjunction with the postal indicium. This count is then used by the data center to provide a subsidy to the postage meter user during a subsequent billing cycle and is correspondingly used by the data center to invoice the third party advertiser.
Although this brokering system represents a new business opportunity for postage meter manufacturers, it suffers from certain drawbacks and disadvantages. First, the third party advertiser cannot exercise any control over when the coupon is dispensed. Thus, if the coupon is time sensitive, then the relevance of the coupon may be lost after a certain date and the third party advertiser would be compelled to pay for advertising that was not effective. For example, advertisements directed to promotions that have expiration dates (rebate programs, concert tickets, limited time offers, etc.) are useless once the relevant time has passed. Second, the third party advertiser cannot exercise any control over the number of coupons dispensed. Thus, if the third party advertiser allocated a fixed advertising budget and accordingly only wanted to pay for a limited number envelopes containing the coupon, then the third party advertiser may be compelled to pay for advertising that was not wanted if the postage meter user generates increased mail volume over that which was anticipated. Third, the third party advertiser cannot exercise any control over the recipient of the coupon. Thus, the third party advertiser has no assurance that a target audience would be reached. For example, advertisements (e.g. sports related or hair loss, as examples) intended primarily for males may not be relevant if the recipient of the envelope from the postage meter user was a female. Fourth, the third party advertiser cannot exercise any control over the geographic reach of the coupon. Here again, the third party advertiser has no assurance that the target audience would be reached. For example, advertisements (e.g. local car dealership or cleaning service, as examples) intended for a certain limited geographic region would not be relevant if the recipient of the envelope from the postage meter user was located many miles away from the certain limited geographic region. As a related example, advertisements intended for the certain limited geographic region on envelopes originating from outside of the certain limited geographic region would not benefit from the increased good will of being associated with a sender in the certain limited geographic region.
As described above, the effectiveness of the third party coupons printed on envelopes is low. Because of the above drawbacks and disadvantages, the fees that third party advertisers would be willing to pay the postage meter manufacturer are relatively low. In turn, the subsidies that the postage meter manufacturer is able to pass along to the postage meter user are correspondingly relatively low. Thus, in the absence of a meaningful economic incentive there is little motivation for third party advertisers and postage meter users to participate in the above described system for placing third party advertising on envelopes.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved system that allows the postage meter manufacturer to broker the use of advertising space by third parties on envelopes. More particularly, there is a need for a system that places the coupons on envelopes in a more effective manner so third party advertisers are more likely to reach their target audiences. In this manner, the third party advertisers would be willing to pay higher fees resulting in an increased economic incentive for third party advertisers and postage meter users to participate.
The present invention provides system and method for improving the effectiveness of third party advertising on envelopes by printing redeemable coupons on envelopes. Generally, this is accomplished by letting the third party advertisers establish conditions under which their coupons would be printed on the envelopes coupon. The conditions may be based upon user (sender) parameters, recipient parameters, quantitative parameters (time, piece count, etc.) or some combination of the above. Furthermore, the printed coupons may include secure information, preferably in the form of a bar code, by which the coupon may be authenticated upon redemption. The coupon preferably includes demographic information that can be collected by a retailer, the third party advertiser, or the vendor administering the coupon distribution system.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a postage printing system comprising a computer, a data center, a control system and a redemption center. The computer is in operative communication with a printer for printing a postal indicium on an envelope. The data center is in operative communication with the computer, which in turn is located remotely from the data center. The data center includes a plurality of user accounts and a plurality of advertiser accounts where each of the plurality of advertiser accounts includes respective ad data including coupon data and restriction data limiting the use of the coupon data. The control system is in operative communication with the data center and the computer and is for: (i) establishing a transaction session between user of the computer corresponding to one of the plurality of user accounts and the data center; (ii) obtaining recipient address information from the user; and (iii) using the recipient address information and the restriction data from the plurality of advertiser accounts to identify coupon electronic coupon data available for printing on the envelope in conjunction with the postal indicium. The redemption center is in operative communication with the data center and coupon redeemers for reconciling payments corresponding to redeemed coupons.
In accordance with the present invention, a method of operating a postage printing system, a method of operating a data center and a method for redeeming the electronic coupons are also provided.
Therefore, it is now apparent that the present invention substantially overcomes the disadvantages associated with the prior art. Additional advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description, which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.